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Possibly millions of water bottles meant for Hurricane Maria victims left on tarmac in Puerto Rico

American said:
Why? How does that change anything? What needs to happen is for Jeff Sessions to frog march the Puerto Rican govt to jail cells for dereliction of duty. The people of Puerto Rico need to stand up for themselves, and hold local officials accountable. Puerto Rico receives $21B in aid annually, WTF are they doing with it? Where's the infrastructure, where's the power grid???? Some govt people down there need to be prosecuted and receive the death penalty.
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The educated people from PR has been leaving the commonwealth since the 1950's to the mainland. Second, most of the governments of PR have been conservatives that believe if it becomes a state, the people will pay higher taxes. You can be a resident of PR, and born there, and do not pay any federal taxes. If you leave PR, and come to the mainland, like Florida pays federal taxes. If you do not pay federal taxes, the federal government is not going to spend money in the commonwealth. If it becomes the 51st state, the federal government will spend money in the state and businesses will come to PR and make it the next Hawaii in 40 years.
 
Lesh said:
People have said that Puerto Rico refuses to vote to become a state.

That is just a flat lie (or possibly ignorance). It is CONGRESS...specifically GOP Congress blocking that
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If you are born in PR, and live in PR, you do not pay federal income taxes. Without paying taxes, they are poorer because of that fact. When they vote on statehood, commonwealth and independents -- nobody gets 50%. The reason why PR is poor, because they think like a conservative and vote for the commonwealth.
 
RetiredUSN said:
FEMA is not the "end all" for every local problem. The mayor of San Juan along with the governor couldn't even rally their government workers to show up 1/2 the time.

Puerto Rico has been bogged down with nepotism, bribes, incompetence, and a "good ole boy" network "Caribbean style" for decades.
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Oh so now an American island community being struck by a category 5 hurricane is a "local problem"? Why is that? Because the local people happen to be mostly brown and Hispanic? Your right that FEMA isn't the 'end all' for very problem. That is exactly the point made General Honore, who headed up the relief effort for hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. He criticized the White House for not having the US military properly positioned to go into Puerto Rico as soon as and as quickly as possible. He called the relief effort mounted by Trump in Puerto Rico "too small and too slow". A direct hit by category 5 hurricane is not just a disaster. It's a force of mass destruction. Maria rendered Puerto Rico into essentially being a war zone. The General said that a large and rapid response by the military was vital. Because the US military excels at doing something far better than anyone else in the entire world. And that is expeditionary logistics. The US military has the kind of specialized vehicles and equipment for dealing with destroyed infrastructure that no National Guard unit or federal or local agency can possibly match.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/retired-lt-gen-russel-honore-who-led-katrina-relief-slams-response-to-puerto-rico/

President Trump praised his administration's response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico on Friday. That view is not shared by retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who led relief efforts in New Orleans after Katrina.

CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller spoke with Honore in New Orleans on Friday.

"Is Puerto Rico worse than what you found here in Katrina?" Miller asked.

"Oh, hell yeah," Honore said. "The number one priority is saving lives and when you're saving lives, you've gotta figure out what rules you're gonna break. All the rules we live by are designed for peacetime."

"And this is what?" Miller asked.

"This is like a war," he said.

"What was their first mistake?" Miller asked.

"Not giving the mission to the military," Honore said. "Look, we got Army units that go do port openings. Not called. We got special forces that could've been in every town. Not employed."

"Has the U.S. government done anything right? Did they learn lessons from Katrina?" Miller asked.

"They did the pre-deployment. That was good. They got an all-of-government approach. That's good. But they don't understand scale," he said.

He calls Mr. Trump's response slow and small. Honore was hailed as a hero after he went into the Gulf states after Katrina and put the relief efforts in order.
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He's darn right they don't understand scale. FEMA had approximately 630 generators on hand before Maria. Which is not nearly enough for an island the size of Puerto Rico. Even sadder was that nearly 10 days after the hurricane they had managed to get only about 30 of them up running. The US government had deployed over 250 helicopters for Katrina. In Puerto Rico the number of helicopters never even got to a 100. Satellite telephones were also in woefully short supply. The island's entire telecommunications network had been totally destroyed. It was practically impossible to establish any direct communications from one town or city to the next. Those phones would be absolutely vital to federal and local leadership for coordinating and organizing their efforts. It's details like that often make the difference between life and death. President Trump when he went to Puerto Rico called hurricane Katrina "a real disaster". Well then what you call hurricane Maria then seeing a the though Maria's death total is 1000 more than Katrina's. Certainly not an "unsung success".
 
Atomic Kid said:
Oh so now an American island community being struck by a category 5 hurricane is a "local problem"? Why is that? Because the local people happen to be mostly brown and Hispanic? Your right that FEMA isn't the 'end all' for very problem. That is exactly the point made General Honore, who headed up the relief effort for hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. He criticized the White House for not having the US military properly positioned to go into Puerto Rico as soon as and as quickly as possible. He called the relief effort mounted by Trump in Puerto Rico "too small and too slow". A direct hit by category 5 hurricane is not just a disaster. It's a force of mass destruction. Maria rendered Puerto Rico into essentially being a war zone. The General said that a large and rapid response by the military was vital. Because the US military excels at doing something far better than anyone else in the entire world. And that is expeditionary logistics. The US military has the kind of specialized vehicles and equipment for dealing with destroyed infrastructure that no National Guard unit or federal or local agency can possibly match.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/retired-lt-gen-russel-honore-who-led-katrina-relief-slams-response-to-puerto-rico/



He's darn right they don't understand scale. FEMA had approximately 630 generators on hand before Maria. Which is not nearly enough for an island the size of Puerto Rico. Even sadder was that nearly 10 days after the hurricane they had managed to get only about 30 of them up running. The US government had deployed over 250 helicopters for Katrina. In Puerto Rico the number of helicopters never even got to a 100. Satellite telephones were also in woefully short supply. The island's entire telecommunications network had been totally destroyed. It was practically impossible to establish any direct communications from one town or city to the next. Those phones would be absolutely vital to federal and local leadership for coordinating and organizing their efforts. It's details like that often make the difference between life and death. President Trump when he went to Puerto Rico called hurricane Katrina "a real disaster". Well then what you call hurricane Maria then seeing a the though Maria's death total is 1000 more than Katrina's. Certainly not an "unsung success".
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Wizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Straight to the race card.
 
RetiredUSN said:
Wizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Straight to the race card.
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The facts of the inadequacy of the response in Puerto Rico, especially in comparison to the scale of the response in Houston and Florida speaks for themselves.
 
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